TD and Air Canada have stepped up their promotion game as we approach the end of the year, offering a seriously impressive 20% points back promotion on flight redemptions and other rewards.
From December 10 through 3am Eastern Time on December 21, 2021, TD Aeroplan cardholders can earn 20% Aeroplan points back on Air Canada flight rewards, Air Canada Vacations packages, hotel and car rentals, and Air Canada gift cards, as long as travel takes place before June 30, 2022.
Register for the Offer
All four TD Aeroplan co-branded cards are eligible for this promotion:
| Credit Card | Best Offer | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
Up to 80,000 Aeroplan points†
$599 annual fee
|
Up to 80,000 Aeroplan points† | $766 | Apply Now |
Up to 50,000 Aeroplan points†
First Year Free
|
Up to 50,000 Aeroplan points† | $683 | Apply Now |
Up to 20,000 Aeroplan points†
First Year Free
|
Up to 20,000 Aeroplan points† | $434 | Apply Now |
Registration is required at this link, and cardholders ought to receive emails letting them know to register.
Although you need to be a TD Aeroplan cardholder to participate, there is no requirement to pay for any portion of the flight redemptions or other rewards using your TD Aeroplan credit card.
20% Points Back on Flight Redemptions
After registering, cardholders will be able to earn 20% Aeroplan points back on all flight rewards. Points will be redeposited back into the Aeroplan account after travel takes place.
The key deadlines to be aware of are as follows:
- Book by 3am Eastern Time on December 21, 2021.
- Travel must be completed by 3am Eastern Time on July 1, 2022.
Effectively, it’s a 20% discount on all the prices you see on the Flight Reward Chart, resulting in awesome deals across the board:
- ~4,000 points for a one-way transcontinental flight on Air Canada economy class
- ~20,000–30,000 points for a one-way transcontinental flight on Air Canada business class (at the low end of dynamic pricing)
- 44,000 points for a one-way flight on Air Canada or ANA business class from Vancouver or Calgary to Tokyo
- 48,000–56,000 points for a one-way flight from North America to Europe in business class
- 60,000 points for a one-way flight from North America to Asia in business class
- 68,000 points for a one-way flight from North America to “Asia 3” in business class of up to 11,000 miles in distance flown
- 72,000 points for a one-way flight on Lufthansa First Class from the US East Coast to Germany
- 88,000 points for a one-way flight on ANA First Class from North America to Tokyo
- 96,000 points for a one-way flight on Etihad Airways 787 First Class from Washington to Abu Dhabi
Needless to say, this is an incredible opportunity to lock in some trips for the first half of 2022.
Certainly, those who are comfortable travelling internationally during this period will be rewarded with greater absolute savings, but a 20% discount on domestic and transborder redemptions is a solid chunk of savings too.
The promotion is combinable with all of the usual Aeroplan redemption strategies that we’re familiar with:
- Aeroplan Elite Status members or co-branded credit card holders already enjoy discounted redemptions on Air Canada flights as part of the preferred pricing benefit; this promotion offers further savings on top of that.
- Adding a stopover on a one-way bound typically costs 5,000 Aeroplan points, which would be reduced to 4,000 Aeroplan points with this promotion.
- Applying a Priority Reward to an eligible redemption results in a 50% discount on the Aeroplan points needed to book; the remaining 50% of points would then be subject to a further 20% rebate, resulting in a satisfying 60% discount overall.
Interestingly, the terms of the offer do state:
The Offer only applies to new redemptions; previous redemptions that are cancelled and then rebooked during the Offer Period are not eligible for this Offer.
However, I find it difficult to see how this would be enforced: a previous redemption that gets cancelled and rebooked is virtually indistinguishable from a brand-new booking.
If you’ve already booked trips that take place during the promotion period, I’d recommend taking advantage of Aeroplan’s flexible change & cancellation policy and rebooking them before December 21 anyway.
Furthermore, the terms also state:
If the travel dates of the original Eligible Redemption are changed, the offer will still be awarded to the Participating Cardholder’s Account so long as travel is still completed by July 1, 2022 at 03:00 a.m. EST, respecting the Travel Period of the Offer, and will be awarded based on the updated number of points redeemed.
Since flight bookings made before December 31 enjoy a one-time free change, this means that you could lock in a few new bookings on a somewhat speculative basis before December 21, and then change them to firm up your travel plans anytime through June 30 – and still earn those 20% Aeroplan points back!
20% Points Back on Hotels, Car Rentals, Vacations, and Gift Cards
The most exciting part of this promotion is certainly the possibility of getting 20% Aeroplan points back on flight rewards.
However, the same rebate also applies to hotels, car rentals, Air Canada Vacations packages, and Air Canada gift cards if you wish to redeem your Aeroplan points here.
Since the value is almost certainly going to be lower than redeeming points for flights, I wouldn’t recommend pursuing these other redemptions even if you get an effective 20% discount.
For example, the standard redemption value for Air Canada gift cards is 1 cent per point (cpp), which is far below our target valuation of Aeroplan points at 2.1cpp.
Even if you get 20% points back after the fact, the effective redemption value is still only 1.25cpp – still, significantly below the value of Aeroplan points when redeemed for flights instead.
Conclusion
Back when the Aeroplan 50% points back promotion came out in the summer of 2020, Aeroplan had signalled that further promotions of this nature may be coming in the future – and we’re finally seeing that now.
TD and Aeroplan are putting on an incredible 20% points back promotion in advance of the winter holidays in December with the aim of drumming up interest in travel in the first half of 2022.
Cardholders will receive 20% of all points redeposited into their account after travel takes place, as long as they book through December 20, 2021 and travel through June 30, 2022 (these are the effective deadlines given the 3am Eastern Time cutoff on the following calendar day).
It’s time to start seriously thinking about your 2022 travel plans if you haven’t already, and make sure to lock in some bookings before December 21!
Any more data points on this offer? I closed my TD card, though I did use it for the booking…I’m thinking I shouldn’t have closed the card.
“Although you need to be a TD Aeroplan cardholder to participate, there is no requirement to pay for any portion of the flight redemptions or other rewards using your TD Aeroplan credit card. ”
This is turning out to not be true even though there was nothing in the T&C saying you had to use the TD card. I think you should do a piece on how Aeroplan is partly reneging on this deal after the fact by requiring taxes to be paid by a TD credit card when the T&C said absolutely nothing about the method of paying taxes.
“ Although you need to be a TD Aeroplan cardholder to participate, there is no requirement to pay for any portion of the flight redemptions or other rewards using your TD
Aeroplan credit card. ”
This is not true, I paid with my Amex. After missing points from the promotion, I called Aeroplan contact Center, the message that they left me was:
“ unfortunately in order to be able to get that you needed to use the same credit card that was registered it was registered with range which would’ve been the TD unfortunately because you use the American Express it’s not gonna qualify”
Was there any fine print that says otherwise?
Bump on this comment – I paid with Amex too but would like to confirm if this fine print existed @Ricky
Nothing has ever posted from this lame promotion…
Do we know if this would apply to the points portion of flights booked with a combination of points and cash?
I tried the incognito window link but it did not work either. I then tried typing in the URL (shown when you hover over the link) and I got to the landing page…. BUT … when I tried registering nothing happened. It seems like they may have discontinued the offer. Any suggestions?
It’s still live – try a different browser.
If you already made a booking, could you cancel and reapply to benefit from the 20% discount?
New Redemptions Only Rule:
If I were trying to enforce this rule, I’d have Aeroplan calculate the # of points used per account for upcoming travel and allow the 20% off to apply to bookings per member in excess of this number of points.
So if a member cancels any booking after this promotion takes effect, that number of recredited points would be considered ineligible for the 20% off promotion.
I don’t know if that’s how they are enforcing this rule, but that’s how I’d manage it as a program sponsor.
I’m wondering if I need to be a TD Cardholder not just now to receive the link but also when I fly and become eligible for the 20% rebate of points. In other words, is this a benefit of being a TD cardholder now or a retention tool to get me to renew my card between now and June? And if the latter, can I simply product switch to a cheaper card and remain eligible?
Does it also apply to Partner airlines (Etihad) if you book the ticket through aeroplan points?
Yes!
T&Cs say “as long as travel takes place before June 30, 2022.” If I have a flight with an extended stopover, does the second leg also need to depart before June 29 to qualify?
I would err on the side of yes, the whole ticket needs to be completed by June 30 to qualify for the 20% points back.
A well timed retention offer as many people, such as myself, are days away from cancelling their card after the first year.
Great point! Many who had signed up in November 2020 would be on the fence right now, and this would be a great motivator to keep the card another year.
What if I already have a aeroplan booking one way business to Europe in May that I already booked and just registered for this promo. Would I still get the 20% discount applied ?
Did you read the article? It doesn’t apply to previous bookings.
More speculation at this point. It’s never going to end with constant restrictions, new requirements, etc.
I’ve already gotten vaccinated, and now I need to wait the upcoming lock downs, then a third booster to reduce restrictions, then a short window to travel, before a new variant, new restrictions and lock down, before a 4th booster to open things back up again.
I’m done with my speculative bookings. 2020 was bad enough for all my cancelled trips, 2021 wasn’t any better, and 2022 is looking to be the same
So my p2 has TD Aeroplan and I don’t , but we both are in the same family pool. Would I be able to book the flights and receive the promotion. ?
Does the 20% discount apply to the 5,000 points required for stopover as well?
Yes, its written above.
“Adding a stopover on a one-way bound typically costs 5,000 Aeroplan points, which would be reduced to 4,000 Aeroplan points with this promotion.”
T&C says you can’t cancel an existing reservation and rebook. I wonder how strict this is. Does it apply to the same flights, or just the same day, or the same route even if you change the days…
I think new dates are well within the T&Cs. The fine print says “previous redemptions that are cancelled and then rebooked”. I’d just book a “new trip” on different days and then cancel the previous redemption. That way my order of transactions is opposite to their exclusion regardless.
Does it work if the booking is made for someone else?
Yes it should.
Hi Ricky. As a TD AP card holder, I didn’t receive an email for this promotion. In addition, the registration link in the article doesn’t work.
Try clicking Register in an incognito window, that’s what worked for me.